Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander has successfully touched down on the moon, in a pivotal moment for private space travel.
The size of a compact car, the four-legged lander is carrying 10 scientific payloads and used 21 thrusters to guide itself to touchdown near an ancient volcanic vent on Mare Crisium, a large basin in the northeast corner of the moon’s Earth-facing side.
Firefly had hoped to be the second private firm to score a soft moon landing, after Houston-based Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lander made a lopsided soft touchdown last year.
A “soft” moon landing refers to a controlled landing on the moon, where it touches down at a low speed and causes minimal damage to the vehicle. A “hard landing” would be a crash landing.
Only five nations have been successful in soft-landings in the past: the then-Soviet Union, the US, China, India and Japan.
Backed by NASA and its flagship Artemis moon program, private companies have played a significant role in the modern moon race. The moonshot by Firefly, an upstart primarily building rockets, is one of three lunar missions actively in progress.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin are building landers to put US astronauts on the moon as soon as 2027 – this would be for the first time since 1972.
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